After over a week of consternation, the Town was finally able to have the grounded sailboat removed from Cape Charles Beach. The town brought in the firms Major Excavation of Bayford and Sea Tow to professionally extract the boat. The remains were towed to the Cape Charles Yacht Center where it will eventually be permanently scuttled.
It was still a crazy situation. There are advanced certifications that can help a skipper deal when the boat runs aground. This boat was from Deltaville where the water is deep–the western shore offers really beautiful sailing, but on the Eastern Shore, not so much. There are shoals and flats that are constantly moving, so it’s hard for those not familiar with the shallowness to be fully aware.
Grounding a sailboat can be a stressful and potentially dangerous situation, but there are steps you can take to help get the boat back afloat. Here are some tips for helping a grounded sailboat:
- Check for damage: Before attempting to move the boat, check for any damage that may have occurred as a result of the grounding. Look for signs of hull damage or water intake.
- Assess the situation: Determine the depth of the water around the boat and the direction of the tide. This information will help you decide the best course of action.
- Reduce weight: Remove any unnecessary weight from the boat to reduce the amount of draft and make it easier to float. This could include removing heavy items from the cabin or taking off sails and rigging.
- Use the tide: If possible, wait for high tide to come in and lift the boat off the bottom. You can also try to use the incoming tide to help push the boat back into deeper water.
- Rock the boat: If the boat is stuck in mud or sand, try rocking it back and forth to help loosen it from the bottom.
- Use lines: Attach lines to the boat and use them to pull it in the direction of deeper water. Use a dinghy or other small boat to assist with this process.
- Seek assistance: If you are unable to move the boat on your own, seek assistance from other boaters or a professional towing service.
Once a boat runs aground, every minute, every hour is crucial. When we saw that boat had been grounded for more than two days, we knew it would only be leaving in pieces. Every change of the tide will turtle the boat even more, and will eventually compromise the keel, the hull, or both. Once it takes on water, it is pretty much a done deal. If this boat had been on the seaside, the sea would have buried it.

Lessons Learned for Town Staff. If you wake up one morning and find a sailboat like this aground, drop everything and make this the number one priority. Don’t wait, call a tow service immediately; they may be able to use the tide to try and salvage it.
Town Manager Hozey told the Mirror, “Regarding the sailboat, the owner is technically still on the hook for the costs, but he doesn’t have much in the way of resources. The town upfronted the cost to be able to get this resolved before it became a bigger problem. We will now seek reimbursement from any or all of the following: the owner, from grants, or from insurance.“
REMEMBER: The law of salvage is a principle of maritime law whereby any person who helps recover another person’s ship or cargo in peril at sea is entitled to a reward commensurate with the value of the property saved.
Maritime law is inherently international, and although salvage laws vary from one country to another, generally there are established conditions to be met to allow a claim of salvage. The vessel must be in peril, either immediate or forthcoming; the “salvor” must be acting voluntarily and under no pre-existing contract; and the salvor must be successful in their efforts, though payment for partial success may be granted if the environment is protected — Wikipedia
It is interesting when reading about Henry Hudson ascending the Hudson River in 1609 to note how many times they got into shoal water and became grounded, and by waiting for the tide (the Hudson River is tidal all the way to Albany) and sending out boats with lines, they always got unstuck and after that managed to sail back down to the mouth of the river and back across the ocean to Europe in the same ship:
“The seventeenth, faire, sun-shining weather, and very hot.”
“In the morning as soon as the sun was up, we set sayle, and run up six leagues higher and found shoales in the middle of the channel, and small ilands but seven fathoms water on both sides.”
“Toward night we borrowed so neere the shoare that we grounded; so we layed out our small anchor, and heaved off againe.”
“Then we borrowed on the banke in the channell and came agrounde againe.”
“While the floud ran, we hoved off againe, and anchored all night.”
“The eighteenth, in the morning, was faire weather, and we rode still.”
“The nineteenth was faire and hot weather.”
“At the floode, being neere eleven of the clocke, wee weighed and ran higher up two leagues above the shoalds, and had no lesse water than five fathoms.”
“We anchored, and rode in eight fathoms.”
“The twentieth, in the morning, was faire weather.”
“Our master’s mate, with four men more, went up with our boat to sound the river, and found, two leagues above vs, but two fathoms water and the channell very narrow, and above that place between seven or eight fathoms.”
“Toward night they returned, and we rode still all night.”
“The one and twentieth was faire weather, and the wind all southerly.”
“This night, at ten of the clocke, our boate returned in a shower of raine from sounding of the river, and found it to be at an end for shipping to goe in.”
“For they had beene vp eight or nine leagues, and found but seven foot water and unconstant sounding.”
“The three and twentieth, faire weather.”
“At twelve of the clocke wee weighed and went downe two leagues to a shoald that had two channells, one on the one side, and another on the other, and had little wind, whereby the tide layed us upon it.”
“So there wee sate on the ground the space of an houre till the floud came.”
“Then we had a little gale of wind at the west.”
“So wee got our ship into deepe water and rode all night very well.”
Sounds like today people have the money to buy a fancy sailboat, but not the brains to know how to sail it, or where to sail it not, which is what I always thought charts were all about, although hey, maybe they had high-tech computers on board instead that were supposed to tell them they were about to go aground, so they didn’t need charts, which are so so retro when you think about it.
And why don’t they know how to unground the ship, where there is so much nautical lore in existence as to how it is done, as was the case back in 1609 with Henry Hudson, when sailors were obviously way more intelligent than they are now.
Good Sir, thank you for the sailors tale. Enjoyed reading.
By the way, they were sailors back then. Today most are boat owners NOT Sailors!!
Why would a ‘town’ be responsible for removing someone’s sailboat? You can not make ignorance like that up.